Could a Big Bounce explain what came before the Big Bang?

Could a Big Bounce explain what came before the Big Bang?

Could a Big Bounce explain what came before the Big Bang?

Physicists are testing a new idea about how the Universe might end, and what that could mean for how it began. Cornell physicist Henry Tye and colleagues built a model using results from two huge galaxy-mapping projects, the Dark Energy Survey and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, which suggest dark energy has changed over time. In their model, a theoretical particle called the axion helps drive the Universe apart today, while a negative cosmological constant slowly pulls it back together. Expansion would keep accelerating for now, then slow as a crunching phase begins in roughly 11 billion years, followed by a Big Crunch about 8 billion years later. If a crunch were followed by another explosion, a Big Bounce, the Universe could be cyclical, expanding and contracting again and again. The researchers stress this is a model, not a proven answer: what happens after a collapse remains an open question.

Physicists are testing a new idea about how the Universe might end, and what that could mean for how it began. Cornell physicist Henry Tye and colleagues built a model using results from two huge galaxy-mapping projects, the Dark Energy Survey and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, which suggest dark energy has changed over time. In their model, a theoretical particle called the axion helps drive the Universe apart today, while a negative cosmological constant slowly pulls it back together. Expansion would keep accelerating for now, then slow as a crunching phase begins in roughly 11 billion years, followed by a Big Crunch about 8 billion years later. If a crunch were followed by another explosion, a Big Bounce, the Universe could be cyclical, expanding and contracting again and again. The researchers stress this is a model, not a proven answer: what happens after a collapse remains an open question.

Physicists are testing a new idea about how the Universe might end, and what that could mean for how it began. Cornell physicist Henry Tye and colleagues built a model using results from two huge galaxy-mapping projects, the Dark Energy Survey and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, which suggest dark energy has changed over time. In their model, a theoretical particle called the axion helps drive the Universe apart today, while a negative cosmological constant slowly pulls it back together. Expansion would keep accelerating for now, then slow as a crunching phase begins in roughly 11 billion years, followed by a Big Crunch about 8 billion years later. If a crunch were followed by another explosion, a Big Bounce, the Universe could be cyclical, expanding and contracting again and again. The researchers stress this is a model, not a proven answer: what happens after a collapse remains an open question.